2013-02-01
2013-02-09
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the pentagon's budget and still protect national security. former defense undersecretary michelle flournoy, if identify got that right -- michelle flournoy, i beg your pardon, she penned an op-ed in the wall street journal this week. joining us is aforementioned michele flournoy. michelle, or undersecretary, which ever you prefer -- >> michelle, please. >> i thought your piece was terrific. sequester or not, defense department is going to lose 10% of its budget and you think there are good ways to do it. walk us through some of the key points. >> i do think the defense budget will come under pressure, even if we do get a deal. there are ways to reduce costs go after the defense enterprise rather than balance the budget on the back of the force. first cutting unnecessary overhead. the pentagon and d.o.d. has grown by more than 100,000 civilians in the last decade. we can pare those back now that we're coming out of a period of war. >> i thought your civilian argument was great. we've been through these wars and you're saying you can take it right back down without losing any national securi

the pentagon. and really ambiguity on israel, too. is that possible that's why he was picked? >> well, actually, i think even more revealing when he said it doesn't matter what i think, i'm not in a policy role. in other words, obama has chosen a stooge who has no independent thoughts, who is not going to be in the way, who is simply going to be there as a plug so that he can continue to slash the pentagon budget. this was a five-car pile-up, larry. this was a fiasco, a debacle, whatever you want to call it. what happened in the hearing today is this shifted from an issue of ideology to an issue of competence. would we be willing to trust this man if he went in to go talk to the russians, if he went in to the middle east. i don't think anyone in good conscience looking at him can say he's prepared, he's sober, he has a grasp of these issues. it was an embarrassing performance. the worst in my lifetime, larry, and i'm not alone. a lot of mainstream reporters saying this was really bad. >> aw shucks, jennifer, i can think of many in your lifetime. >> oh, not as bad as this. >> i want to ask you o

ahead. >> here's the big challenges for apple. the pentagon chael challenge for a s&l that it's a really great wonderful product that's changed the world but ipad, it growth is not enough to make up for the slowing saturation of the smartphone market that -- that is happening because the iphone is being adopted and the rich people already have these things. you know, the ipad is a great product, but it's been so great, it hasn't been able to sort of do what the iphone has done. the iphone is a once in a lifetime product that was wonderful for apple's profit margins and we're just not going to see the likes of it again any time soon. >> not to pile on, colleen. you have to admit buzz is not there for apple and when you look at the stock price, it's down sharply from those highs last september when ironically they had just introduced the new iphone, so, you know -- it's a nice ipad, but where's the buzz for apple these days, colleen? >> listen, i agree, apple need to do a lot more to get this stock back, but the buzz isn't there because this is an enterprise story. this is a business story

the pentagon to allocate the cuts in their best judgment rather than forcing certain cuts on them. that would be one helpful thing, but i think the bargaining power almost requires that we allow it to happen before -- before anybody is going to get serious about their negotiation. i agree. it's a terrible idea, but it's maybe a bad idea whose time has come. >> laura you say it's not next to happen. >> right. >> you say there's no debt crisis. how would you describe the 16 trillion debt. >> so what i would say, look, there were estimates out there at the beginning of the year we needed about $4 trillion to stabilize the debt-to-gdp ratio. we're about 60% of the way there. we do need additional revenue increases or spending cuts over the next decade, but let me emphasize. over the next decade. not at a moment in time when the economy has 7.9% unemployment and is operating under its capacity to the tune of maybe six percentage points below capacity. this is a terrible time to do what needs to be done, and it's also a terrible way to do it because it's like telling a business you have to cut ever

he knows and doesn't know about the pentagon because he didn't know much. why are the democrats going to lay down for this? >> if i were the democrats and i'm looking at a republican whose foreign policy views are very popular with the likes of pat buchanan, might have some second thoughts about that. nice a guy as pat is, his foreign policy view ace little bit crazy. chuck hagel obviously holds some views, has empathies that are out of the mainstream of the republicans and democrats. we have two parts that agree on a very aggressive interventionist policy. >> besides president obama, i admit the president usually gets his own. i don't see anybody laying down for this guy. and i read today, okay, i read pretty your stuff. i read it from a lot of stuff. he is refusing to disclose his financials. particularly his foreign financials. i don't know how you get through under those circumstances. >> the democrats will support him. the more important issue for them is barack obama. barack obama is still the number one issue in politics today. and democrats need his support to win in 2014. so

of peaked and it's showing some sign of a reversal. >> the pentagon is cutting the usair craft carrier fleet in the persian gulf to demonstrate the effect looming defense cuts could have on the military. it will have to trim flying hours and lockheed's fighter jets. billions of dollars in automatic cuts known as the sequester are set to take effect march 1st if congress doesn't delay or cancel them. outgoing secretary of defense leon panetta called lawmakers irresponsible. >> it is difficult to believe, frankly, that congress would simply stand aside, stand aside, fail to make the decisions necessary to resolve this crisis and allow the defense, economy and quality of life of america to be irreparably damaged. >> thou, some health and senate republics have offered a plan to cut the federal workforce and use those savings too void the full 85 billion sequester. a similar plan failed to gain any traction last year. however, will this time be different? mark parkinson, former governor of kansas, ceo, and a real pleasure to have you with us. >> great to be here this morning. thank you. >> we wou

consequences. the incident took place near disputed islands on january 30 but took time to verify. the pentagon says both sides ought to avoid any acts that might spark conflict. >>> meanwhile, china is promising to make sweeping tax reforms to narrow the rich/poor suicide. plans approved by china -- divide. plans approved by china says the rich might pay more. in companies, taxes could rise 20% by 2015. there's talk of giving savers a better return. it's for tilting toward more consumption than investment spending. >>> an expected pickup in china is giving a reason to be more optimistic after a challenging 2012. the company said the net loss widened to nearly $4 billion in the fourth quarter last year. but the biggest steelmaker by volume expects profits to pick up amidst improving conditions. in china alone the company sees the steel market growing 3%. and the stock up 2% as a result. >>> and syngenta trades are lower today. the company reported full-year net profit of $1.8 billion. that was ahead of a reuters forecast. it expects another record sales year citing strong commodity prices. so w

to see you. i wanted to put this up. this is what's on the cover of "usa today." pentagon warns of huge cuts. when you think about what's going on in washington, right now, and you think about the sequester that may or may not happen, and you think about your history in washington, do you think that we will have the sequester? >> andrew, i don't know. i think it's a very complicated situation. i think we had a great opportunity and i actually thought there was some reasonable chance it might happen, which was to have a grand bargain that could have addressed what is really unsustainable and deeply dangerous long-term fiscal situation and i think if we had done that, not only would be useful for the long run but i think could have generated confidence in the shorter run and promote jobs now. now instead of that we have a happen has 5rd process. a sequester we're facing. it's a terrible piece of legislation. it arbitrarily cuts defense and nondefense without thoughtfully doing so. instead of being phased in so we'd have more room for recovery, it hits abruptly. and it's far, far from clea

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